Thursday, June 23, 2011

Conservation

For years, one thing about conservation efforts that has bothered me is the ephemeral nature of artificial borders and the bedrock upon which such efforts are constructed. Governments change and entire nations can (and do) dissolve. What is the fate of "protected" lands when such things occur? I saw what happened when Rwanda degenerated into an orgy of mass murder--human refugees descended on local National Parks killing and consuming wildlife for food and fouling waterways, felling trees, burning grasslands. I've seen pro-corporate Republicans follow on the heels of regulation-minded Democrats, erasing environmental safeguards. So much for "parks" and "laws".

On the way to extinction.

Ideas about the overriding problems of modern human influence on the ecosystems have consumed me for years. Without having ever had a formal education I flounder around wondering about an answer to such a dilemma. Unarmed with the necessary scientific and philosophical discipline, these concerns dog me even into my sleep.

This morning I awoke from a very vivid dream with the following words foremost in my waking mind:

'The boundaries of parks and wilderness give a false sense of silenceSo that the constant whine of the saw can continue unabated.'

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About Me

I'm a laborer working as a letter carrier for the USPS. I'm also a writer with over sixty published short stories, hundreds of pages of comic book scripts, scores of reviews, and several novels, among them THE FLOCK, THE CLAN, THE LIVING END, and others. In July 2009, Angry Films announced that they'd optioned the film rights to my novel, THE FLOCK.
My first novel, THE FLOCK, was published in October 2006. I also edited the Poe-themed anthology EVERMORE for Arkham House Books. I'm hard at work on my latest novel.
Tor Books now has the trade version of my first novel, in addition to the book's sequel (THE CLAN). My zombie novel THE LIVING END is now available, from Severed Press. You can order the new trade paperback Tor Books version of THE FLOCK here. My latest novel is WITHERING (written under my pen-name, Robert Mathis Kurtz).
All contents of this blog are copyright by James Robert Smith.